Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to hand held ratcheting wrenches in general and to devices which provide light on the element to be driven by such wrenches in particular.
In the prior art, in order to apply light to an element to be driven by a ratcheting wrench, lighted drive extension bars have been used. Such extension bars are shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,134, issued Feb. 24, 1981 to H. T. Barnaby, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,477,434, issued Dec. 19, 1995 to D. D. Read. However, such devices have two principle disadvantages: they are separate from the ratcheting driver and so may become lost or mislaid or be in a distant location when needed, and they require additional space between the wrench and the element to be driven, which may not be available if the element to be driven is in a confined space, as often occurs when the use of the light extension bar would be most beneficial.